mary carillo’s swan song?

Sometime after the Shahar Peer/Serena Williams match at the Australian, the internet was abuzz with how Mary Carillo had reached Paula Abdul-like status; she made comments, one more ridiculous than the other, and at one point — presumably thinking that her mic wasn’t hot — could be heard saying “I’ll be fired for this.”

While I didn’t follow the end of the thread to see if her job was indeed threatened — and really we won’t know until Roland Garros rolls around in the summer — I will post about her receiving the Gracie Allen award for her coverage of the Olympics in Torino.

Here’s a great profile of Mary published in the St. Petersburg Times right before last year’s U.S. Open. Cool tidbits, including how she got started as a tennis commentator. (After she’d retired, a producer placed her on the air as they scrambled to fill airtime before a match at MSG.)

Edit:Sports Media Watch gives us a little more insight into what viewers (and players) dislike about Ms. Carillo. le sigh.

8 Responses to “mary carillo’s swan song?”

I feel that Mary Carillo is without question one of the 2 best Tennis commentators we have-she is thorough with her research and her literary flair just of master class quality perhaps rivalled by John McEnroe’s.
Her comments during the Serena/Peer match were not that outrageous-just witty.

Mar Carillo is always making rude comments when it concerns the Williams sisters. I think she’s racist and she makes stupid comments when she commentate for either of the Williams sisters matches. I think it’s rude and she just makes herself sound so stupid when she makes her racist remarks toward the sisters. Mary don’t be jealous becasue you will never be an icon like the Williams sisters. I mean what was your career like in tennis anyway, I see you like to put the sisters down a lot…but what have you done for tennis? You’re absolutely correct…NOTHING!!!!! You’re such a “B” with an itch!!